Choose your Battles
by The Unlisted
Summary: Like many fanfiction before this one, Emma has found herself facing something she hates: being a kid again. After screwing up her own magic, Emma gets the chance to feel what it's like to finally have a stable family...even though she's mentally 29 years-old. *Emma is a kid again!* Charming family feels up in this story
1. Chapter 1

There are a lot of different ways to go about doing a lot of different things. Some ways are better and the other ways are what Emma chooses to do. There wasn't exactly a book labeled "How to Hone Your Magical Outbursts" and her new parents didn't really know how to deal with a 29 year-old child, especially not one that had sparks shooting out of her palms. So, how was she going to deal with this little situation? Why, ask a freaky untrustworthy sorcerer.

"Hey!" A dinging sound resounded through the old pawn shop as Emma made her appearance known. "You ready for some action, Gold?"

He walked into view and stood behind the glass case. "Why am I helping you again?"

Emma sat down on the stool that was positioned next to the case. She couldn't help but smile, even though she was in the presence of someone who could potentially really screw things up for you.

"Because if I learn how to control my powers, then I won't destroy this lovely shop." She gestured around her. "And I could totally be kickass and stuff."

"And that makes me help you?" He sighed.

"Don't question what you already agreed to. I'm sure you have some twisted reason for helping me control these freakish powers." He nodded his head in appreciation of her thought process.

"The thing is, dearie…it's not really me showing you how to control your powers." He pointed to Emma. "It's all about your concentration." He laid a thin book in front of her on the counter. "Try to shrink this. Really concentrate. Just picture it in your head, and let it happen." He walked back into the far corners of the shop, leaving Emma with a sad expression and a stupid book.

"And here I thought I would learn something…" She grumbled to herself as she stared at the book.

It wasn't changing. Nor would it change with Emma's lack of magical experience.

This sucked.

Emma lowered her face so that her chin was resting on the counter. Her eyes scrunched in concentration. How hard could it be for the savior to shrink a thin book? Apparently really hard, because the next thing she knew was that her vision started the blur slightly.

"Aw man, I think this magic thing has side effects…" She rubbed her eyes in an attempt to right her vision. She looked at her hand….this wasn't her hand.

"SHIT!" Emma flailed the hand in front of her, trying to rid herself of the foreign object. The flailing caused her to lose balance on the stool and fall back. "DAMN IT! GOLD!" She yelled, rubbing her sore head.

"Give up already, dearie…" He trailed off after getting a good look at her. He attempted to stifle his laughter.

"What's so freakin' funny?!" Emma screeched, still sitting on the ground.

"You might want to take a good look at your reflection…" Gold pointed to the glass case.

Emma realized at that moment that she had the power to turn people into dwarves.

"What the hell is that?!" She screeched, not realizing that her voice was significantly higher pitched than before.

"I think "that" is actually you." Emma started feeling her own face, noticing that the reflection was moving in unison. "If I were to guess…I would say that instead of shrinking the book, you shrunk yourself! Funny how things turn out this way."

Emma started to examine her extremely small appendages. Her legs….were short. Really short. So were her arms. Actually, everything was uncomfortably short. And she wasn't wearing pants….

Wait a second…where were her pants?!

Emma's head whipped towards the stool, eyeing her long forgotten pants resting on the top. Shit was going down. At least her shirt covered all her vital body parts. Her magic lesson could have gone a lot better.

"Don't worry…you're covered." Gold said, noticing her panicked expression. "I might have some clothing in the back…" Emma nodded in her depression. Gold went to retrieve the mini pair of jeans and a small white t-shirt. "You can change behind the counter."

Yup, everything was small. Everything. She struggled into her shirt, taking into account that her miniature arms lacked any coordination for forcing clothing onto her body. The button on her pants was even worse. She didn't even attempt that hell. She was fine with leaving her pants unbuttoned.

"I couldn't find shoes…" Gold started saying, but Emma raised her small yet slightly chubby hand to silence him.

"Thank you for this." She gestured to her new outfit.

"Do you want to call your parents?" He asked, going to pick up the phone.

"OH HELL NO!" She almost full body tackled him.

"Positive?"

She nodded, walking towards the front door. "Definitely. I don't need them seeing me like this…" She thought for a moment. "besides, I don't want to get sidetracked. I have a lot of work to get done at the station and what not."

"Well, if you're sure."

"I will turn back to normal right?" Emma gestured to her whole body. She didn't know if this magic stuff wore off or not. Again, there was no convenient handbook that explained things.

"You will…when you learn to control your magic." She huffed in displeasure and walked towards the front of the shop. She could deal with this later.

Emma attempted to open the front door and failed miserably. Now she knows how short people feel…how they can see what they want but it's just slightly out of reach. She glared at the door handle when she saw Gold open it for her. She nodded in thank you and booked it out of the shop, her bare feet hitting the pavement.

Amazingly enough, she was able to hide from everyone who stepped out of their house today. That was one perk to having a small body- lots of hiding places. Of course her happiness had to turn sour when she realized the door to the station was out of reach as well. Emma frowned and stood on her tippy toes.

Nope, she wasn't reaching it by herself. Wait, she could stand on something.

Emma walked to the back of the station and saw a crate. She sighed as she dragged it to the door, realizing how depressing this whole situation was. At least she was able to open the door.

"Damn these non-muscular child arms…." She grumbled as she sat on her chair and began to look through her papers. As she began actually getting work done, she noticed that magic had more than one side effect. First, she turned into a smallish creature. Second, she felt like she had just outrun a horde of cops in the middle of August (extreme fatigue if you're catchin' the drift).

The next thing Emma saw was that it was dark outside and the station door was slamming open.

"Oh Emma!" She heard the slight accent and lifted her heard, deciding to ignore the drool that accumulated on her desk.

"Hey Belle." She yawned, her voice was still thick from sleep. "Waz up?"

After getting over her shock of seeing a little Emma, she walked up to her desk and squatted to Emma's eye level.

"Rumple told me you would be here, but I didn't expect you to look so…"

"Dwarf like?" Emma guessed.

"I was going to say childlike." Belle smiled, resisting the urge to ruffle the sleepy girl's hair.

"Not trying to sound mean, but why are you here?" Emma jumped down from her chair. Belle stood up straight and crossed her arms.

"Your parents are on a mad search for you." Emma's eyes widened. "Apparently a certain person wouldn't answer her phone." She felt her front pocket and mentally cursed. Damn her other big person pants.

"Um, well you can obviously see why I didn't." Emma gestured to herself. Belle frowned. "What? It's not like I lied about anything!"

Belle sighed and lowered herself back down to Emma's level. "No, but your parents are very worried about you." Emma was not appreciating how she was being spoken to like a child. "And are your pants unbuttoned?" Well crap. Emma's cheeks reddened slightly.

"I…I like them like that?" Belle gave her a look.

"You couldn't button them, could you?"

"Yeah, I totally couldn't."

Belle laughed softly and buttoned the pants so easily that Emma was kind of jealous. "Why'd you do that?"

Belle straightened up and dusted the imaginary dirt off her pants. "Because I wanted to." She held out her hand and Emma just gave a wary look at it. "Well?"

"What did you want me to do?" Emma was honestly confused. She could give Belle a high five, but that would feel awkward.

"Just take my hand." Belle grabbed Emma's hand and began to walk out of the station.

Emma was left speechless. It's not like people hold your hand on a daily basis, and no one treated her like this as a child, so this treatment was weird. Okay, maybe not weird…but strange. Different. Not sure if it's a good or bad different.

Instead of fighting Belle, Emma just looked down and let herself be dragged outside…probably towards her parents…who would totally kill her for not calling them. Curse this little body.

"Your parents are probably regrouping at Granny's." Emma made a surprised look. "Yeah, that's right, they formed a search party for you."

"I'm surprised Gold didn't tell em'…" Emma mumbled, getting nervous that Granny's was right around the corner.

"Rumple said it was none of his business."

"Why can't everyone think like that as well…" Emma mumbled again.

Granny's finally came into view and the large crowd in front of the restaurant was proof that her parents had formed their own army. Her mother was clutching Neal while her father had his hand on her shoulder. Red and the Dwarves were huddled in their in their own little circle, almost like a battle formation. Oh god, so many things could go wrong now.

Belle walked up slowly. Emma decided that in her best interests for survival that she should probably hide behind Belle's leg- which she did. This was no time to be the savior or hero. Her mother walked up quickly, cradling Neal's head. "Oh! Belle!" Emma sunk farther into Belle's legs, if that was even possible. "Can you please help us- wait, who is that?" She was spotted, it was only a matter of time before her mother hardcore kills her.

Her father walked over to join the fun. "Uh, Snow?" Her eyes started to grow concerned at the tone of voice Belle was using. "I found something that could be of interest to you."

"What's up…mom?" Usually Emma wouldn't outwardly call her mom "mom", but right now she needed this leverage so that maybe her punishment wouldn't be too severe.

The hand that wasn't cradling Neal shot up to her mouth. "Emma?" She whispered. David's eyes widened and Snow practically shoved Neal into his arms so that she could freely kneel down in front of the childlike Emma.

Hands shaking, Snow slowly lifted them so that Emma's face was cupped in her palms. "Emma?" She whispered again. She began stroke her cheek with her thumbs. "Belle, what happened to my daughter?"

Belle shook her head. "I didn't ask for any details." She smiled slowly. "But Emma could probably fill you in."

Her mother's eyes whipped back to Emma's, attempting to read her soul. "Emma, what happened? How old are you? Are you okay?" Emma lifted her chubby child hand to silence the stream of questions.

"Well, I have the power of turning people into dwarves…" Her mother scowled and you could her one of the actual dwarves in the distance yell out.

"Did someone do this to you?" Her father asked carefully, crouching lower to get a better look at his daughter.

"Well…." Emma drew out the word, not looking her parents in the eyes.

She didn't want to exactly admit that all of this was her fault. She could put some of the blame on Gold, but she asked for his help to begin with. Yup, all her fault. At least Emma knew that she had enough magic to actually shrink herself, so she should have enough to change back to normal.

"Emma." Snow's voice sounded hard, almost as if she was about to scold her.

"It was my fault…" Emma looked over to David. She knew his eyes wouldn't be as hard as her mother's. "I asked Gold for some help to develop my powers…" She gestured to her body. "And then this happened."

"Why didn't you talk to us, honey?" Her mother's face scrunched in sadness. These terms of endearment were sounding strange.

"Guys," Emma backed away slightly. "I'm not used to having parents…in fact, I'm not even used to having the same people around me for a long period of time."

Now they looked hurt, but hey…the truth is the truth. Maybe they would feel guilty enough not to punish Emma too hard for going behind their backs and getting Gold's help.

Her mother took a deep breath. "Okay." She clapped her hands together. "Since you're this small, you finally need your parents." She smiled softly. "You'll be staying with us."

Emma backed away more, trying to use Belle as her shield, but realizing Belle backed off more than she did. "Whoa." She put up her hands to stop her mother's train of thoughts. "Whoa. No way, I have an apartment. I can take care of myself."

"Nope." Snow said quickly, stroking Neal's head. David snuggled him closer. "We're your parents, you're staying with us." Emma opened her mouth. "No back talk, you technically look four, so we would win."

Her mother took purposeful strides towards her daughter. Emma's eyes widened when she picked her up and propped her on her hip. No way was this happening. This is a nightmare.

"Snow!" Her mother ignored her and stood beside her father. "This is not necessary!"

She chuckled. "Of course it is." Emma felt her cold feet be squeezed. "You don't have shoes one! You could have hurt yourself!" Emma mumbled under her breath. "Thank you, Belle. Thank you for finding our daughter." Belle smiled and gave a small wave.

The family of four was about to experience an interesting night.

 **Okay, so I'm not too too well versed on some of the OUAT- mostly because some of it pisses me off. Mostly Henry. Neal's just there to fill some voids. So if there are some inconsistencies, then tough squash. This will be some intense Charming Family Feels right here. Enjoy.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Emma's POV**

Having parents isn't exactly the worst thing in the world; it's only incredibly creepy when you haven't had parents for most of your damn life. People couldn't imagine their lives without their parent's, I'm a little different in that retrospect. Just give me to the system and let me live my life. In conclusion, parents are weird…and my weird parents were basically dragging me back to their parental lair. It's not like I'm completely against this situation…but I am completely against it. I love these people and everything, but my body didn't need to go into extreme flashback mode so that my parents can finally have me as there "little girl".

"Welcome home, princess!" David said, opening the front door with Neal in his arms.

"Strange…" My eyebrows drew together. "this doesn't look like my apartment…"

I could practically feel Snow frown. "Strange, because this house is your home as well."

David smirked as he closed the door behind his wife and locked it. It's amazing how different something can look when you shrink to the size of nothing. Everything was huge. I can see why children wanted to climb on everything—just look at all of this—every piece of furniture is like it's on playground. Snow lowered me to the ground.

"Have you eaten dinner yet, Emma?" Snow asked, still staring at me with those awkward motherly eyes.

I hadn't eaten yet, but I wasn't about to let them feed me in this form. "Of course, I can take care of myself." I heard David's laugh from the kitchen.

"You would always forget your lunch in the office! Thank god your mother always brought an extra lunch!" My eyes narrowed.

"Well, I'm so sorry that some people can adult better than I can."

Snow chuckled at my word choice. "Sweetie, we're not saying that you couldn't take care of yourself, but right now we would like to help you along." I still wasn't happy about all of this.

"If I let you 'help me along' will you treat me like an adult?" I already knew they wouldn't treat me like my normal self, but it didn't hurt to try.

She sighed softly. "We will try, Emma." She got up and walked over to Neal who was sitting on the floor. Thank the good lord that his one and a half year old self can actually hold up his body. The only bad part was that he's beginning to talk. "Even if you don't want our help, we're going to help you. Even if you try to run away…we're going to find you." Oh no, the good ol' 'hide and find' sort of thing. I don't know why my parents were so fond of that sort of phrase.

Now it was my turn to sigh. "Alright, alright!" I started to walk towards the stairs. "Is it alright if I go to sleep?" David's head popped out from inside the kitchen.

"Going to bed already? I thought you were going to fight more."

"I'm an adult…" I kept sliding towards the stairs. "so I'll act like one."

"Can you please eat something, Emma?" Snow's voice sounded concerned.

"I ate earlier, now I'm just tired from today."

"Okay honey, but if you get hungry you can come join us, or you can wake us up if you get hungry." She handed Neal to David. "But I don't want you to make anything by yourself." She picked me up and balanced me on her hip. I was still unhappy. "Do you understand me?"

I rolled my eyes, hoping that she didn't sense anything. "Yeah, yeah…I'll wake you up if I'm dying from hunger."

"Good to know!" Snow ascended up the stairs and walked to my old room that I used to sleep in when I actually lived here. "Don't die on me though."

My room still looked pretty similar. White walls, white comforter, hard wood floor…pretty normal, pretty boring. That's what I like thought. I shouldn't get comfortable in places that I might not be staying at. I glanced down at myself…in awkward children's clothing. However, I was going to need more children's clothing because my body was clearly childlike.

"Actually, Emma, is it alright if you sleep in our room tonight?" Snow was staring at my room like it was some kind of demon.

"Why? I'm fine in my bed. It's comfy." I felt Snow reluctantly put me down.

"You know I would feel a lot better if you slept with us in-" I cut her off by saying, "Snow, I'll be fine in my room."

"Alright," She totally wanted to take me to her room. "but if you need anything, please come to us. Don't be afraid if you wake us up." She was wringing her hands in a nervous fashion.

"Thanks, Snow!" I smiled slightly, which made her smile. "Good night."

"Good night, sweetie." She slowly left the room and left the door open a crack.

Now, we couldn't have that, could we? I closed the door quietly, hoping that my parents wouldn't care if I actually got some damn privacy. Love them to death, but they were literally loving me to death. I wanted to die in a kickass why; not by getting hardcore snuggled. I looked over to my bed and realized something…it was a lot taller than I last remembered.

How the hell could I live like this? Why do actual children look like their having fun? The closest I could do was take a running start and launch myself onto the bed.

It kind of worked.

I made it on my bed, of course. However, I was clinging to the side in hopes of not plummeting to my doom. It could have been worse. I crossed my legs under me and looked around my room. It felt the same as all the other foster homes I've stayed in. I was always alone, and I was okay with that. Actually, I try to be alone. People were always too much work to be around. I probably sat there for an hour before I heard my parents starting to settle down. They were singing Neal to sleep and getting ready for bed as well. I smiled a bit, not just because they were a cute little family of three, but because she could finally get something to eat when they finally fall asleep.

I lied before. I haven't eaten since breakfast. My stomach was starting to digest itself. My goal was to get the good stuff in the pantry. My luck was Snow replaced everything with a healthy substitute. I don't know why anyone would want to subject anyone to that horrible fate. I was still hungry though, so I would still eat foods from the forest…as long as its food.

I slid onto the floor, making sure to not make any sound. Luckily, these floors weren't too creaky, but knowing those crazy people, they would definitely realize that something was up. I opened the door, hearing a small creak. I flinched and waited a few seconds. Nothing significant happened, so I continued on my mission. The stairs were going to be the hardest part. My body was small and the stairs were for normal sized people. I would have to tumble down the stairs.

That was the only way.

And by tumble, I meant that I would carefully maneuver myself down the stairs on my ass to finally make it to my destination. I was successful in my journey. The kitchen was a lot freakin' bigger than expected. Well, it was expected…but it's late, dark, and I barely could recognize what the hell anything was from this short angle. Now that I finally made it to the kitchen, the next goal was to acquire the food. I wanted goldfish—they're simple and hopefully easy to reach.

I was wrong.

It was on a damn high shelf—in a cupboard—above the counter. Mission 2: climb the counter, and I was totally going to do it. I padded over towards the counter that held the desired finished production. I opened the lowest drawer, one that would be easier to throw myself over. So far so good—I didn't fall yet. The counter was finally under my feet and it was exhilarating; I can see why children have so much fun climbing up this crap. The cabinet above my head was practically asking me to open it, and that was exactly what I did.

"Shit…" Snow put the goldfish on the top shelf. I'm short, I can't acquire this food unless I hang off the top cabinet…which, again, I can totally do.

"Emma Ruth!" Holy hell no.

I turned around slowly, still standing on the counter. "Snow! Good morning, how are you doing?"

She obviously was not pleased as she started to slowly approach me…you know…with her anger. "Good morning?" Crap, crap, crap. "Good morning?! What on earth are you doing? You could get injured so easily!" She grabbed me under the arms and practically killed me with her hand grip. Snow grabbed my cheek and threw daggers at me. "You will not be doing this again, do you understand?"

I nodded, my cheek still squished by her fingers. "You really scared me; do you want to give your mother a heart attack?" I assumed it was a rhetorical question. I shook my head no anyways. "Good, because guess what? You're sleeping with us tonight."

Greaaaaat.

"But first, why are you in the kitchen anyways?"

I looked down. "I was hungry…" I mumbled.

I felt the vibrations of Snow's laughter. "Ah, so you were hungry, huh?" Don't judge me. "I don't want you eating this late at night, but I'll give you something just as helpful." She walked into the living room and sat me on the couch. "Can I trust you not to move?" I scowled, but nodded.

I was slightly angry that I wasn't allowed to practice my autonomy. I could get my own food. Snow opened the fridge; I couldn't exactly see anything, so I just kinda sat with my arms cross, showing that I really wasn't happy. Snow sat next to me with a cup filled with hopefully nothing weird.

That wasn't food! "I made you some warm milk." I scowled. This was like a classic children's night drink. "It should fill you up a bit. I don't want you eating this late at night." That should be my decision to make.

"Snow, really?" I looked at the cup in disgust. "I don't need anything like that."

She slowly lowered the cup to my hands. "Just try it." You know what's really unfortunate? Not being able to hold a child's cup with one hand.

"If I drink this, can I go back to bed?" She nodded with a smile. I took a small sip and remembered why I didn't like milk. If it was chocolate, then this would be a hell of a lot better. I drank it anyways for the sole reason of getting Snow off my back. "If this was choc-"

"You're not getting chocolate this late." She cut me off so easily. This was the harsh reality of it all.

"I can control my non-existent childlike outbursts…" I mumbled into the cup of hell. I drank a little bit more than half until I knew I wasn't going to be to make it to the bottom and this godforsaken cup. "I'm finished."

Snow smiled and took the cup from me, pouring the rest of the contents into the sink. "Alright, let's go to the bathroom before we head off to bed." She clapped her hands together…and no one should clap their hands together for going to the bathroom.

"So you're making me go to the bathroom?" I raised my eyebrows, not really wanting to go to the bathroom with Snow commanding it.

"Emma, you may be an adult, but think about. Your bladder is the size of a child's; you're ultimately going to wet the bed if you don't use the bathroom." I hate admitting that she might be right.

"Damn it all…" I mumbled as I made my way to the bathroom, but something was wrong…Snow was following me. Kill me. "Okay, I'll be using the toilet now…" I tried to slowly close the door. "and, ya know, do normal things in the bathroom." Snow was still standing in the doorway. "This means you can wait outside and stuff."

"I'm going to have to go with a no." Lord, she didn't have to be so frank about it.

I crossed my arms. "I don't see why you have to watch me relieve myself."

"Tell me, how tall are you?" She asked, her hand started to migrate to her hip.

"I dunno…like 2 and a half, three feet?"

"I'm helping you onto that toilet." This is mortifying.

No matter how much I struggled, nothing worked. Literally, this woman was like an animal. So, she forcefully picked me up, borderline took off my lower extremity clothing…and…put me on the toilet. I can't pee on command. It doesn't work like this. She wasn't leaving though. She was just standing there…watching me.

"Are you just going to stand there?" She just freakin' nodded! "Then can you at least turn away?"

"Emma, I made you. I know what you look like."

"Oh my lord, you didn't have to put it that way! Just let me get used to peeing in front of other people!"

Luckily, she actually turned around and I was able to finally have my thirty seconds of freedom. I attempted to do everything rather quietly. I didn't want Snow to actually do everything for me, which would be even more mortifying. The height from the toilet to the ground wasn't even a problem; so I have no idea why Snow was freaking out so much.

"Are you done with being so embarrassed?" I could hear the laughter in her voice.

"Okay, okay! Thank you for actually killing my esteem. Can I go to bed now?"

"Of course!" She propped me on her hip and started to walk towards her room.

Please no. "What are you doing?" I attempted to sound calm, but I really didn't want to sleep with a bed filled with people. Especially with people who are my new family. "Are you really making me sleep with you?"

"Emma, you attempted to scale the kitchen counter." I grimaced. "I'm afraid the next time I wake up I'll see you on the ceiling fan." That would be fun, but I knew I wouldn't be able to accomplish that. "Just give me some piece of mind, please?"

The good ol' parent guilt trip…nice play, Snow…nice play. "Fine, but I won't be exhilarated about it…" She smiled and bounced me softly on her hip; slightly comforting, but more weird.

Snow and David's room was rather comforting. There was a sliding door that lead into the room itself, which made the room seem bigger than it actually was. There was a king sized bed in the center of the room, a closet on the far right, a dresser, two bedside tables, Neal's crib next to my Snow's side of the room. It was easy to walk because of the soft light on the bedside table. She sat down on the side of the bed.

I have no idea how this was gonna work out. I mean, I've never slept in a parental figures bed before. "So, um…I can sleep on the floor?" Yup, Snow just glared at me. "Ooookay, how do we do this?"

Snow chuckled softly. "You just sleep." She maneuvered me between her and David. She slide the covers over me and herself and began to sink into the bed. "See, there's no catch about this situation." Snow reached over to turn off the light; the only light near Neal's crib. She turned to lay on her side, facing me.

This was weird. What made is weirder was that she wrapped her arms around me—first I'm forced here, and now I'm restrained. "Why are you doing this, Snow?" I whispered, not wishing to raise my voice above that volume.

"You're my daughter, Emma." She pulled me closer to her chest, to where it seemed like I was part of her body. "I know you may not accept that right now, and I know it feels so strange to finally have a family. You have to realize that your father and I love you so dearly, and we will be here to help you along the way."

I had no way to respond to that, so I opted to just nod into her body, hoping that she understand what I meant. "Goodnight, sweet girl." I had no strength to fight against that. I just laid my head down on Snow's chest, mostly because I had no choice due to her animal-like strength, and nodded off to sleep.

OUAT OUAT IN THE GOOD OL' MORNING OUAT OUAT OUAT OUAT OUAT

I'm not usually a morning person, but I'm definitely not a morning person when someone else is wrapped around me. Remember when Snow squished me against her? Yeah, it stayed like that the whole night. Actually, now she's on her back and I'm lying on my stomach on top of her body. Why couldn't I have honed my disappearing magic? The worst part was that I could feel Snow's breathing and hear her heartbeat. I mean, it's good that she's alive, but it's just weird to do this to someone who used to be my friendly roommate.

"I'm guessing your mother won the war?" Oh sweet shit. He's awake.

I awkwardly moved my head to the right so that I could properly glare at him. I wouldn't be so bad to move my head if it wasn't on Snow's chest…which you can understand why it would be so awkward. "Ha, ha. So funny, David." I made a face. "I had no choice and I have no way to fight back." He chuckled.

"Well, I'm glad you get to experience some of this."

That's the thing that gets me worked up. I wanted this kind of treatment 26 years ago! Not now! My childhood was absolute hell; even being this size and being around adults is borderline traumatizing. I'm an adult now. I've worked past all the crap in my life. I don't need to be forced back…I don't want to relive any of these awful memories.

"Don't move yet, Emma. Your mother hasn't had much sleep lately." I shifted my eyes up. Dang, Snow was really knocked out. It was going to be hard not to wake her up when I try to get up. "Neal has been keeping everyone up," I saw David's soft smile. "but he's worth it."

I relaxed into Snow's body; I didn't want to make her life any more difficult. I was just…another burden on top of Neal. "Do you think you can replace me with Neal, so that Snow doesn't wake up?" His face looked confused. "I just really have to use the bathroom." He made that "Oooh" face and made his way to Neal's crib and picked him up. Fortunately he still looked rather tired, so he should fall asleep nicely in my place.

"Okay, we're going to replace in 3, 2…" I prepared myself. "1." I softly rolled off onto David's side of the bed. It looked like Snow did not wake up from the kid switch, which was awesome for me. "I'm going to get ready and watch Neal to make sure your mother doesn't crush him."

I smiled. "Roger that!"

This was absolutely fantastic. David actually let me do something by myself! I made my way to the bathroom, entered alone, peed alone, left alone. It was awesome. This is what I'm used to. Well, everyone should be used to using the bathroom by themselves, but with Snow, that was impossible. I meandered my way towards the kitchen, still thanking whoever is above for letting me actually be somewhat alone. Sadly, there still was crappy food in this godforsaken place.

Cereal. That sounded safe enough. The pantry was easy to open. Maybe I could easily climb the shelves…and totally be killed by the dictators that call themselves my parents. Good thing I push the envelope to the extreme. Okay, picture this: open door, five shelves, cereal is on the third shelf (way out of my midget arms reach), ability to climb two shelves is a done did. Climbing things is easy, it's when people mess up your mojo is when things go wrong. Alright: cereal was ascertained, milk was easier to retrieve, however…there was one more problem. Bowls were way too high. If I got them, I would either drop it or someone's parental instinct would attempt to kill me. I totally ditched the bowl. Who needs that mundane crap! A spoon was a bit better, I just had to extend my body to the limit, but pssssh…who doesn't do that now a days?

The next step was figuring out how to actually eat this thing. Snow knew I sometimes came over for breakfast and how I ate rather…unhealthy things, so luckily I was able to snag the box of lucky charms—which is literal heaven. Giving up on being prim and proper; I poured some milk into the box, scooped out cereal with my spoon, shoved it in my mouth, and took a nice seat on the kitchen floor. Who cares if this was considered "un-lady like", because I could give no damns.

I was on my sixth spoonful when, "Young lady…" Well, David's voice can go a lot deeper when he's angry. "What is this?"

I'll admit that the kitchen wasn't spotless, but it could be worse! There was some cereal here and there and maybe some random milk patches…but…man, this sucks. "I…couldn't get a bowl?" I grimaced, realizing that sounded incredibly stupid.

"Why didn't you just ask for help?" He picked me up and sat me on the counter. "Good thing your mother is awake now."

Anything but that. "Do we really have to do this?" I stared down at my hands. "Can't we just keep this to ourselves?" While I was saying that, there was a gasp near the living room. There was no going back now. Might as well plan my funeral.

"Emma Ruth…" It's amazing how many times she called me that already. "Didn't we have this issue last night?" David rose his eyebrows.

"Oh really?" He smirked and walked over to grab a bowl…the bowl that I couldn't reach.

Snow came out of view, holding Neal. "Why did you do this Emma?"

I do a lot of things that you're not really supposed to do. Even as an actual child I was a bit of a…heathen. "I'm an independent woman?" She gave me a look. "Am I not a woman?" She can't deny me that fact that I am indeed a female.

"Of course you are a woman, Emma." She passed Neal off to David. "But right now, you are in the body of a four-year old, and you don't seem to understand that." She picked me up from the counter, walked to the bathroom, and lifted me in front of the mirror. "What do you see there?" I just looked away and didn't answer. "You don't like the answer, do you?" I slowly shook my head. "It's because you look like a child." Snow never held her punches. She sat me down on the toilet seat cover. "I'll tell you again and again that I care about you, and I would like to care for you."

This was going to be difficult.

* * *

 **Soooo….I'm sorry? For some reason I've been writing this for like months and I just kept on adding a paragraph here and there. Four months later…this is what ya get! Yeah, not decent, but it works for me! School was hell over the summer, and its hell now, but it's becoming a lot of fun! I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and hopefully it will not take me too long to update, but God knows I don't do that. However, if you also read my other stories I will hopefully be updating them too.**

 **Thank you everyone!**


End file.
